Rotating pointer chance device



Dec. 25, 1951 H, HARR|$QN Y 2,580,225

ROTATING POINTER CHANCE DEVICE v Filed May 25, 1948 2 Sl-iEETS-Sl-IEET 1 FIG .l 28

Dec. 25, 1951 H HARRISQN 2,580,225

ROTATING POINTER CHANCE DEVICE Filed May 25,1948 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 FIG. 4

FIG. 3

HENRY J. HARRISON,

Attorney Patented Dec. 25, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ROTATING POINTER CHANCE DEVICE 7 Henry J. Harrison, El Paso, Tex.

' Application May 25, 1948, Serial No. 29,130

- 1 Claim. 1.

This invention relates to advertising novelties and has for its principal object the provision of an intermittently operated clock having a single hand and which will stop on exactly any one of the hour numerals from one to twelve.

A further object of the invention is to provide a novelty whichwill readily attract attention and which will indicate numbers at random at regular short intervals of time and so designed as to present such numbers in exact conformity with the law of chance, that is, the machine will not favor any one of the chosen numbers and will be brought to a stop exactly on any one number and never between two of the numbers on the clock face.

A further object of the invention is to make an advertising novelty of rugged construction at a minimum of cost and with a maximum of efiiciency.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a front elevation.

Figure 2 is a similar view but with the front face and supporting disk removed.

Figure 3 is a rear view of the device with the back cover or panel removed.

Figure 4 is a side elevation with the metal strip omitted in part.

Figure 5 is a wiring diagram.

In the drawings which illustrate the commercial form I am now using, the frame consists of two panels l and II made of laminated wood having between them a platform l2 and having at the top a connecting bracket l4. The front face l of the device is a sheet of translucent plastic having engraved on its surface a plurality of clock numerals l6 and an advertising expression as, for example, Good any hour indicated by the numeral IT. The plastic clockface panel |5 is supported from the central frame member H] by screws passing through spacers 45.

A strip of flexible metal 23, preferably of stainless steel, is secured to the-frame member ID by the relatively small screws .24 so as to give a pleasing effect to the device. I prefer to sever the metal strip 23 as at '25 and 26 and make radial slits 21 in the portion between so that the portions between the slits 21 can be turned down against the panel NJ as best seen in Figure 2, to provide a wide vent 28 in order to carry away the heat produced by the electric lamps as best seen in Figure 4.

A carefully balanced indicator 30 which is substantially an elongated hour hand is mounted on a central shaft 3| which is preferably threaded so that the indicator 30 can be screwed on this shaft and then held in desired position by simple lock nuts. I

In order to attract attention to the device I provide a plurality of electric lamps 35 and 36 of alternate color, my preference being red and blue, each of the lamps 35 or 36 being in radial alignment with the numerals I6 to accentuate the latter. vAt the bottom'of 'theffront face of the frame panel I0 I mount a plurality of lamps 38 preferably of a still different color, for example green and. these illuminate the legend IT. A very convenient way of mounting these lamps, preferably of small voltage, isto mount them on brackets such as 40 whereby the distance apart or other positioning of the lamps 38 can be adjusted at will and the brackets secured in place as by the screw 4|. The lamps 35 and 36 are mounted in a similar manner on a metal disk 44 supported from the panel 10 as by the studs 45.

Referring principally to Figure 3 in which the platform I2 is shown but the rear panel II is removed for clearness, 50 indicates the motor .which drives the shaft 3| on which the hour v with the numerals l6 of the dial plate I5.

The motor is energized at regular intervals and this spins the shaft 3| with the indicator 30 and the stop wheel 53 for a chosen duration which may be anywhere from a single second to five or more. The purpose of the stop wheel 53 is to insure that the indicator 30 shall point precisely to one of the numerals 6 and never between two of them. To this end I mount a permanent horse-shoe magnet 55 on the central panel I0 by means of a screw 56 and a washer 51 thus enabling me to bring the active end of the horse-shoe magnet to a chosen position with respect to the proximate point of the star stop wheel 53.

The lead-in electric cord 58 is connected as by wire 59 to a manually operated switch 60 which turns the current on and oil. The lights, 35, 36, 38, &c., are connected to the secondary 62 of a transformer as by the wires 63 and 61. The primary 6| of this transformer is connected to the manual switch 60 as by the wire 64 on one side and to the lead-in wire 65 of the cord 5g as by the wire 66. Thus whenever the switch is turned on, the lights are lighted and a synchronous motor is also operated.

The motor 10 drives a small disk H carrying one or more pins or cams 12 which engage a flexible spring 13 of switch M thus closing the circuit including wires 15 and 16 to the motor 59. Con 'sequently when the manual switch 50 is closed, the various lights immediately light and the synchronous motor 10- starts to revolve making a complete revolution of the driven disk H in approximately a minute so that with two'pins' as shown, at each 30 or 35 seconds one of the pins or cams 12 engages the spring 13 of the switch 14 thus sending current to the main-motor 59 which thereupon revolves the shaft 3! and with it the indicator. The time of contact of the cam pins of the synchronous motor with the flexible spring can be varied within considerable limits but I find it sufiicient to have the contact abouttwo seconds. The shaft 3! carrying the indicator 39, the star wheel 53 and the armature of the main or shaft motor 50 spins freely after that for a brief period. Then the magne 5'25 attracts one of the points, which may or may not be turned in slightly, and holds the shaft 31 so that.

the indicator points exactly to one of the numerals. i I

I While I have described the best of the commercial models I have built, itis to be understood that the description is for the purpose of illustration and that modifications of the exact structure may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention which is defined in the following claim.

- I-claim:

A device of the character described compris- 4, merals, said magnet being rotatably adjustabl about an axis parallel to and spaced from the axis of the shaft so as to bring the indicator into exact registry with one or the other of the two proximate numerals when the shaft is about to stop, a synchronous motor, a slowly rotating cam disk driven thereby, a normally open switch for energizing the shaft motor for intermittent periods of tirne as the cam disk is revolved by the synchronous motor to. close the switch periodically, a transformer having a primary in parallel with the two motors, a series of light bulbs alternately of two contrasting colors radially positioned in rear of the translucent front face, each in registry with one of said numerals, and an additionalseries of light bulbs of a third color below the clock face numerals, said bulbs all being connected to the secondary of the transformer whereby the lights will continuously be lighted when the device is in operation and the indicator will spin periodically, first under the urge of the shaft motor and then freely with the armature of said motor acting as a fly-wheel and will come to rest at the end of each cycle at random pointing exactly to one of the twelve clock face numerals.

. HENRY J. HARRISON.

REFERENCES CITED 7 The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

